JAPAN
Revenue anD EXPENDITURE
13
The annual State revenue pertaining to the general account is estimated in the Budget for 1904-1905 at yen 229,855,933, while the expenditure is estimated at yen 223,181,230, leaving a surplus of a little more than six and a half million
yen.
The estimated revenue is considerably lower than it has been in the preceding five years, but this is mainly due to special causes. A surtax on land has terminated, and with the commencement of the financial year 1904-1905 the land-tax was restored to its original rate, resulting in a decrease of over yen 10,000,000; there was also a decrease of over yen 3,000,000 in the transfer of Chinese indemnity funds which had been set aside' to meet certain extraordinary expenditures. In the itens of the revenue account which form an index to the prosperity of the country, such, for instance, as the income and business taxes, the estimates contemplate increased receipts. The outbreak of war necessitated the provision of a War Fund. A "Reserve Fund for Emergencies" which amounted to 40,000,000 yen was appropriated for this purpose, and Imperial sanction was obtained for a sum of yen 156,000,000 to be raised by loans and bonds and by borrowing from the special accounts. In addition an Extraordinary War Budget was passed for yen 380,0 10,000, making a total war expenditure of yen 576,000,000, equivalent to about £58,000,000.
During the last five years Japan has been spending largely on military and naval expansion schemes, which were formulated after her war with China. These schemes involved a total expenditure of yen 342,384,750 covering the period down to March, 1906, and in addition the ordinary expenditure on the Army and Navy has steadily increased in correspondence with the increments in the growth of the Imperial forces.
The national debts outstanding at the end of the last financial year (1903-4) amounted to yen 564,918,951. Included in this amount is the foreign loan of £10,000,000 issued in 1899. The loan is for 55 years, from January 1, 1899, but is redeemable at £100 per cent. after January 1, 1909, by drawings from time to time at the option of the Government of Japan, on their giving six months' notice. The rate of interest is 4 per cent., and the loan was issued at £90 per £100. The proceeds of the loan are being applied towards the completion of the various remunerative public works cited in the following Acts of Parliament: Railway Construction Loan of 1892. Public Undertakings Loan of 1896, Hokkaido Railway Construction Loan of 1896, the law relating to the placing of a public loan in a foreign country of 1899. The expenditure under these Acts is estimated to be as follows: £8,900,000 for railway construction and improvement; £900,000 for establishment of steel works; £1,000,000 for extension of the telephone service.
A War Loan for £10,000,000 at 6 per cent. redeemable in seven years was issued in May, 1904-half in England and half in the United States. The issue price was 934, the security being a first charge on the Customs receipts. The half of the loan raised in England was nearly 31 times over-subscribed. In November 1904 another 6 per cent. sterling loan for £12,000,000 was issued, half being placed in England and the other half in the United States. The subscription price was 90 per cent. This loan which is secured by a charge on the Customs is, like the last, redeemable in 1911.
It was very largely over-subscribed in both countries. In England the subscriptions amounted to £80,533,800.
ARMY AND NAVY
Until the war with China the Army consisted of six divisions and the Imperial Guards, with a peace footing strength of 70,000 in round numbers and a war footing of 268,000, exclusive of the Gendarmerie and the Yezo Militia; but on the conclusion of the war a large scheme of expansion was adopted, under which the number of divisions was raised to twelve, exclusive of the Guards. The peace footing is now 145,000, and the war footing 520,000.
At the conclusion of the war with China, Japan found herself in possession of a fighting fleet of forty-three serviceable vessels-independent of twenty-six torpedo- boats-their aggregate displacement being 78,774 tons. Of these, ten, with an aggregate displacement of 15,055 tons, had been captured from China - namely, an armour-clad turret-ship of 7,335 tons, two steel cruisers, six steel gunboats, and one wooden gunboat. (Prior to the capture of the Chen-yuen, now called the Chin-yen, Japan did not possess a line-of-battle ship. Her fleet consisted entirely of compara- tively small vessels). There were also on the stocks two steel cruisers and a steel despatch vessel. An expansion scheme, extending from 1st April, 1896, to 31st March, 1906, was then adopted and orders were subsequently placed for ships in Great Britain, the United States, France, and Germany, as well as in the home yards. The building programme was as follows:- 4 first-class battle-ships of 15,240 tons each,
Original from
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN